Chapter 229: Preparation

"What about Guan Xinyue?" Luo Qi roared.

Another window pushed open, and Guan Xinyue appeared at the window, bleary-eyed and wearing pajamas. She roared back, "Luo Qi, you son of a b—"

Both she and Luo Qi froze. The young girl bit her lip, as if the curse had scorched it. One had to know that with the strict upbringing she had received for over a decade, she would never curse. She herself was stunned for a moment, then suddenly waved her hand, as if to shoo away an invisible elder who was reprimanding her. She muttered under her breath, "Screw it, I'm stuck with three men, I'll say whatever I want!"

Although she was muttering, she had somewhat forgotten that all three Mages could hear her. Luo Qi came back to his senses and hurriedly shouted, "Hurry up and change your clothes and come down, there's trouble."

"Luo Qi, what exactly is going on?" Majiang asked impatiently.

Guan Xinyue didn't ask anything else, muttered another curse, and turned to disappear behind the window. Luo Qi knew she had gone to change.

"Two big shots," Luo Qi called out, "could you two please come down as well?"

"How did you take over this Ancient Town?" Majiang asked stubbornly.

"Luo Qi, what happened?" Du Zhengyi asked him from the window, frowning.

He pointed toward the southwest corner of the town, his eyes fixed on Du Zhengyi. "Fog is rising."

Du Zhengyi and Majiang couldn't help but look toward the southwest. There were originally a few high-rise buildings in that direction, and one could see the lights on them from afar. But tonight, the high-rises in the southwest had vanished into the thick darkness, the air was a degree or two colder than usual, and a damp, slightly putrid smell permeated the air.

Majiang sniffed and gagged slightly.

"Which idiot," he said, "used sewer water to humidify the air when creating the fog? If I catch him, I'll beat him until even his own mother won't recognize him."

"Exactly," Luo Qi said, "there's river water all around here."

"Does the river water here smell any better?" Majiang said irritably, cursing as he disappeared from the window, crossed the corridor, and ran toward the stairs.

Du Zhengyi seemed to shake his head helplessly, placed his hands on the windowsill, jumped out of the window in one motion, and landed beside Luo Qi.

"Luo Qi..." His words were cut short because Luo Qi suddenly reached out to straighten his poorly adjusted shirt. He froze.

"Where did you go?" Du Zhengyi asked, bewildered.

Luo Qi didn't answer, suddenly rushing forward to hug him. Du Zhengyi heard Luo Qi clearly choke back a sob. Before he could react, Luo Qi pulled away from him at lightning speed. There was only a sliver of light from the window in the courtyard, and the light was dim. Even though Du Zhengyi had excellent eyesight, he could only see Luo Qi's eyes shining abnormally, as if his energy were burning exponentially; he couldn't tell if Luo Qi was crying.

There was no time for him to think carefully before Majiang walked out with a yawning Guan Xinyue.

Du Zhengyi glanced at them, then looked at Luo Qi. "Alright, tell us the important parts. What did you discover?"

"I discovered that we might be wiped out here tonight," Luo Qi said nervously. The intensity of his neural activity was indeed very high; he was currently connected to the entire town, and that feeling was as if his existence had expanded infinitely, expanding until the entire town was a part of him. Countless spirits supplemented his mental space; they worked for him, expanded the speed of his thinking, and likewise enhanced his Magic Ability and increased the power of his Yajian.

It was precisely because of this that he could sense an equally powerful force not far away. It was as if two dragons of consciousness were confronting each other from a distance.

Luo Qi retracted his tentacles of consciousness, focusing his main attention on what was in front of him. "We all know the High-energy Crystals of the Six Great Black Markets were bought by someone, and we already had Wen Lin investigate the situation of the High-energy Crystals in Ganzhou, but she never sent back any useful information. Furthermore, the real Kongsang Mountain is not in Ganzhou; the so-called Kongsang Mountain in Ganzhou is just a decoy tomb, like the Xingtai Mountain guarded by the Guan Family. I suspect the Lotus Burners know this too; those crystals were never meant for opening a mountain. I was so stupid; I never thought about what kind of place the Mage Association is, or what it relies on for defense. Those High-energy Crystals are, for f—'s sake, meant to deal with us!"

"Are you sure?" Majiang asked.

"Of course I am," Luo Qi said, surprised, finding it hard to believe that Majiang didn't trust him.

"Talk is cheap..."

"I have proof!" Luo Qi interrupted him impatiently. "I can see them right now."

Majiang was stunned.

"They are in my field of vision, combined into a behemoth, lurking outside the Ancient Town. Of course, I could only see it after taking over the highest authority of the Ancient Town and requisitioning all the crystals," Luo Qi shrugged. "I haven't been able to look closely yet; it's cunningly too far away from me, but I suspect a team of Mind Mages is currently using a Magic Array to condense their power."

"What?" This time, Majiang completely understood Luo Qi's words. He looked up, involuntarily gazing toward the southwest, where the fog was ominously gathering and thickening. The fog hadn't fully spread over here yet, but the more it stayed that way, the more suspicious it made one feel—suspicious that there were more ominous things in the thick fog, waiting to come over all at once when the fog advanced.

Luo Qi continued, "And the appearance of Ruiqi. Since the High-energy Crystals are aimed at us, the Seal Beast likely is too."

"No way," Majiang said weakly, his gaze returning to the southwest. Luo Qi knew he was already seventy or eighty percent convinced. "The Lotus Burners have already discovered a Seal Land?"

"No," Luo Qi said in a low voice. "If the Lotus Burners had discovered something so important, they wouldn't waste it on us. Ultimately, I don't think the Lotus Burners hate us that much. In this matter, whoever hates us the most, whoever is most likely to find the Mind Mage Society, is the most likely culprit behind the scenes."

Du Zhengyi suddenly looked at him. "Tell the truth, how exactly did you discover it wasn't the Lotus Burners?"

Luo Qi looked at him in silence for a while, then finally said, "I went to the morgue to examine the bodies and met Clownfish; he had the same goal as me. If the Lotus Burners had started this, and if the people were killed by them, there would be no need for him to go to the morgue to check. By the way, that woman should have been killed by a Mind Mage. Thinking back, the High-energy Crystals from the Black Market were bought by the broker Yao Yu, and Ruiqi was also sold by Yao Yu; the whole thing has the most to do with Yao Yu. But Yao Yu doesn't necessarily represent Clownfish, and even that meeting between Clownfish and Yao Yu that you saw might have been like today, with Clownfish also investigating another force mixed up in the matter."

"Another force," Majiang sighed helplessly. "One that knows a lot about the secrets of Qionglin and might have a ready-made Seal Beast under its command."

"There's more," Luo Qi swallowed. "After I obtained the highest authority, I checked the crystals here. Someone used High-energy Crystals to influence this place; the whole town is permeated with a sense of security, like a frog in warm water—once we entered, we wouldn't want to escape. I checked the traces of this Mind Magic, and I can feel that the person who cast it... is my dad."

Guan Xinyue almost screamed, "Your dad? Planning to kill you?"

Luo Qi shook his head. "Maybe he has the confidence, believing he has a way to ensure I don't die?"